I would hate to see the GF moving to primetime. I love my traditional saturday bbq's and then after the AFL a good night out. Although would work better for people who live overseas. Especially us who live in the UK. The game would start at a much better time of the day.

It was a bad decision for the NRL to change to twilight. Sometimes the fans need to be TOLD what they like. Traditions should not be kept at the expense of higher ratings and profits.

Unfortunately, Australians are too stupid to know what's good for them, therefore we can never progress unless it's forced. The AFL need to grow some balls to make the right business decision and change the Grand Final to primetime.

. "Traditions should not be kept at the expense of higher ratings and profits" This from someone who insists on The Simpsons returning to 6pm weeknights.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has told The Australian Financial Review that the league is considering to run its own channel on the National Broadband Network, similar to the NFL Network in the US, but only after the current broadcast rights ends at the end of 2016.

The Australia has reported that a clause in the AFL broadcasting deal with Seven has provided them with exclusive coverage of the weekly team announcements. No other media organisation will be allowed to name teams selected for that particular round until Seven has broadcast them at 6:25pm.

AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou has told The Australian Financial Review that the league is considering to run its own channel on the National Broadband Network, similar to the NFL Network in the US, but only after the current broadcast rights ends at the end of 2016.

First of many - goodbye Fox Sports, goodbye terrestrial TV.

As soon as the NRL and FFA set theirs up, I'm good to go.

Wake up and smell the maple nut crunch!
Follow me on Twitter at @bigdan1985

Thats why the various NEWS LTD papers and their mouthpieces in Parliment(Liberal/Nats)and on Radio are fighting the NBN will everything they can,and Lying through the teeth while doing so,Foxtel ect will be in serious trouble once the NBN get going and hits its stride
FTA may be in the same boat I know iinet has some very good packeges as I have made enquires about themcheaper than what I have now and faster

Looking closely at the broadcast schedule for first 7 rounds of the 2012 season, it looks like broadcast arrangements will be a repeat of 2002-2006 rights, where matches produced by Foxtel and involving one of the non-Victorian teams are included in the weekly free-to-air quota, and every state and territory will only get four matches each week on free-to-air with some exceptions. The difference this time is that the replaced matches (produced by free-to-air networks) will be shown live on Foxtel.

(I'm posting the following here as it's a broader issue which concerns both broadcasters, not just one. If i'm wrong, than the mods may move it to where it needs to go.)

Its only taken one game, but it looks like Foxtel's promise of "every game in stunning HD" is coming undone very quickly. And judging by the reaction on social media on Saturday night during GWS v Sydney, they're going to have their hands full with complaints. Foxtel did make it clear last year that any games that aren't in HD (which appear to be every Seven produced game) will be upscaled to HD. And indeed, when they do advertise that it is HD, upscaling does count, so they are still correct to some extent, but the picture quality was definitely not of HD standard. Could Foxtel get in trouble with the ACCC for misleading advertising I wonder? Granted, it's not their fault, that's Seven's (they actually use a HD truck at the ground to produce, but a HD feed never leaves the truck, will get to that), but if they knew that viewers would pick up on the inferior picture quality, then they should've never said that every game will be in HD.

Which brings me back to Seven. I'm aware that they don't produce a HD feed because they want to sell two lots of ads (for 7 and 7mate), but if Nine can give a HD feed out to Fox Sports for the NRL, than why must Seven act like idiots and not do the same? Would a HD feed be given out to the international networks? I think that they're trying to give the 'up yours' to Fox, because after each goal there was silence from the commentators when they used to be replays and analysis beforehand. Seems like Seven are trying to screw people that are watching the game on Foxtel and trying to get them to watch it on Seven.

Both parties are in the wrong here. Foxtel are wrong because they advertised that every game will be in HD and it's not going to be, and Seven are wrong because they've got everything set up to produce a HD feed, but don't bother to flick a switch (probably not as easy as that, but figuratively speaking). If they want to make more money from ads, then why have they done a HD broadcast for the Grand Final and several finals series a few years back?

Just goes to show how far behind we are in HD broadcasting when it comes to FTA. That, and the incompetence of some people, including those at the AFL and in Government.

If you want a good piece on all this, including quotes from people who work at Gearhouse Broadcast, I do recommend you check out this blog post, it's a good summary of the whole situation: http://josh.nu/fans-...l-sd-broadcast/

The guy who wrote that is being very active about it on Twitter and has tweeted high profile AFL journos, players and the like. Here's hoping this gets some awareness in the mainstream media (but it probably won't, sadly)